Definition of Brill-Zinsser disease

Brill-Zinsser disease: Recrudescence of epidemic typhus
years after the initial attack. The agent that causes epidemic typhus (Rickettsia
prowazekii) remains viable for many years and then when host defenses are down, it is
reactivated causing recurrent typhus. The disease is named for the physician Nathan Brill
and the great bacteriologist Hans Zinsser.